Snapshots of a Sisterhood
by Emikadon
Summary: Life is so fleeting, yet we allow our memories to slip through our fingers like sand in an hourglass. [One-shot]


**I've always found Ema and Lana's relationship as touching as Maya and Mia's, but it's much less explored. I understand that they didn't get quite as much screen time as the Fey sisters, but I really want to give some love to the Skye sisters as well :)**

**Note: This fic is a mixture of both canon and AU. There aren't really too many details about the life of the Skye sisters, so I added fillers to develop their characters. I consulted the wiki for stuff like age difference and major events, so in this story, Lana is 13 years older than Ema. **

**Enjoy!**

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><p>Snapshots of a Sisterhood<p>

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Life is so fleeting, yet we allow our memories to slip through our fingers like sand in an hourglass.

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The first time Lana sees her sister, she does not immediately feel a protectiveness surging through her young, not yet mature body.

_That_, she mentally scoffs, _was a thing of romanticized fairytales_. Rather, the small thirteen year old regards the pink, lumpy, mound of flesh in her mother's arms with curiosity and trepidation rarely found of someone so young.

She moves her eyes from the baby, _Ema—her mind supplies helpfully__—_to meet the warm, glowing face of her mother, beautiful in its radiance. Lana blinks in surprise as her mother's arms shift slightly, offering the bundle in her grasp. Lana hesitates. Cautiously, she reaches out and allows her mother to transfer Ema and place the baby against her. The child stirs ever so slightly, face scrunching up and letting out a quiet whimper as the familiar warmth disappears, only to be replaced by smaller, less experienced arms.

Lana feels the solid weight of the infant settle in against her body, and she watches with fascination as Ema's face gradually clears and calms in her sleep. Only then—_only as her unsure arms adjust to the extra heaviness, only as she gently brushes a wisp of hair from the baby's forehead, only as she cradles the slumbering newborn against her spindly chest_—does Lana feel the protectiveness blooming in her heart.

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The first time Lana is hit by true, unadulterated joy is a mere eight months after Ema is born.

"Nrrghh," Ema gurgles out, clapping together her tiny palms as Lana makes cooing noises at her baby sister, a wide, lopsided grin on her face. "Lanngghhh." Lana laughs quietly as Ema reaches out and tugs her hair, before unceremoniously shoving the lock into her mouth.

"Oh, ew! Ema! Don't put Lana's hair in your mouth!" Lana chides, gently pulling her now soggy hair from Ema's grip. Ema stares up at her with curious eyes. "Lana doesn't want to wash her hair again tonight," Lana informs the child, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she watches Ema's head tilt slightly to the side.

"Lanngghhh...? Lannggaaa," Ema again reaches out to tug her hair. Lana sighs with exasperation, and it is at this moment that her mother makes her entrance, a laugh escaping from her lips.

"Is Ema bothering you? I can take her if you need to finish up homework."

Lana is silent for a moment, allowing the baby to softly yank of her hair, before nodding and handing the child over to her mother. However, as Lana pulls away, Ema whimpers quietly, looking back at the teenager with wide eyes. Lana's mother laughs again, shaking her head and mumbling something about sibling love under her breath.

"Lannggaa?" Ema coos again, "Laaaannaaaa?"

Both Lana and her mother blink. Is that...?

"Laannaaa. Laana! Lana!" Ema is now giggling, happy to have finally gotten it right. "Lana!"

"Ema's first word! Oh goodness, this is so exciting!" Her mother squeals and beams at Lana, who is still stunned. Her baby sister's first word... was her name? What happened to the traditional mama or papa? Ema is plopped back in Lana's arms as her mother rushes out of the room, yelling for her husband and a camera, and Lana stares at the small child with wonder. Ema smiles brightly back up at her, and Lana feels laughter and giddiness bubbling up from her throat, joy pooling in her stomach.

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The first time Lana experiences sorrow and grief is after receiving the news of the crash from an unfamiliar police officer.

By this time, Ema is a few years old—able to walk and talk and run and truly be a _child_—yet her innocence remains as she looks upwards at the grief-stricken face of her older sister: someone she has come to love and would come rely on fully. Lana's arms tremble as she takes the five year old into her embrace. Ema obediently stands still and wonders why her sister is shaking and why her eyes are filled with such sadness.

"Lana?" She asks, head tilted to the side just as it always did when she was confused.

Lana just shakes her head and pulls Ema against her tighter, feeling the weight of the world beginning to press against her shoulders, hugging her young sister's familiar body against her own as the sorrow spills out of her eyes in the form of rain.

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The first time Lana feels pride is when Ema is in first grade and learns to stand up for herself and what she believes in.

Rushing to get to the elementary school she had dropped Ema off at that morning, she curses every traffic light she stops at because her class had run too long and she was late to pick up her sister. By the time she finally pulls up in front of the small school, the sun is already setting and the parking lot is spotted with only a few cars every here and there. Still mumbling curses under her breath, she hastily pushes her way past the double doors that marked the entrance to the school, and she is greeted with the sight of a short Ema scowling upwards at a tall boy who is standing with his arms crossed and a sneer on his face. A book lay sprawled and forgotten on the floor.

"Shut up! You don't know anything!" Ema snaps angrily, narrowing her eyes to slits. Her fierce expression takes Lana by surprise. Since when had Ema been so aggressive?

"Really?" The boy taunts, although he seems less certain as Ema's hostile expression grows colder, "Because it seems to me like you're just a loser who's only friend is a stack of papers."

Lana feels her own eyes narrow, her expression becoming frigid as she quickly makes the connections in her mind. Bully spouting insults? Book knocked over? Ema snarling and angry?

Before she can intervene and deliver a stern chastisement to both the boy and the missing teacher who _should_ have been watching over the kids, she is once again surprised as Ema turns her nose upwards haughtily and giving one of the best glares Lana has ever seen in her life. A smirk slides its way across her face as she watches her little sister proudly announce, "At least _I_ know how to read, unlike a bumbling idiot like you. While you proceed to be a bully for the rest of your miserable life, I'll become a forensics investigator and help my older sister put away criminals where they _belong_!"

With that, she spins on her heel and marches her way over to her stunned sister, but not before tossing another superior look over at the boy, who is still struggling to figure out what half of the words Ema has spewed out mean. Lana makes a mental note to remind her sister that being aggressive isn't always the right answer, but for now she's too proud of Ema to care.

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The first time Lana ever becomes completely fed up with Ema, life, and everything is in her final year of Law school.

All of the stress of finals, financial security for her and Ema, and _just_ _feeling too small in a world too big_ bursts outward when she takes in the shattered test tube on the floor and spilled chemicals stained on the carpet and Lana explodes.

She screams her frustration that Ema refused to listen when she had told her not to play with her science kit on the carpet and her carelessness that caused a massive stain that would cost too much money to get cleaned professionally. She screams that money was already tight enough with her only working part-time and that she can't take any more extra expenses. She screams at the unfairness of her being only a girl of twenty-five yet she has to deal with so much more than those twice her age.

She screams and she screams and she wonders when she had started crying and when Ema, a girl not even a teenager yet, had taken her into her arms to let her sob her heart out.

Lana pulls away from the familiar embrace of her sister and mops up the tears with a tissue Ema hands her. Her baby sister's eyes are mournful, filled with guilt, and Lana nearly falls apart again at the irony that her sister was the one who was comforting someone twice her age about something as small as broken glass. Lana sniffles a bit and blows her nose nosily, before offering a watery smile at Ema, who returns a tentative one of her own. Together, they grab some towels and clean up the mess, and soon all that is left of the spill is a weird, blotchy stain that would eventually fade over time.

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The first time Lana panics is when she sees the horrifying picture of Neil Marshall's bloody corpse impaled on a suit of armor, Joe Darke unconscious a short distance away, and Ema—her beloved baby sister Ema—collapsed on the ground, fragments of a vase shattered around her.

Lana feels light-headed with fear, and she stumbles towards her sister, her breath coming in shorter and shorter breaths until she's hyperventilating. Gant rushes in quickly after her, stopping short at the sight. Lana pays him no mind, biting downwards on her lip hard enough to draw blood as she clutches Ema to her chest, if only to keep herself from screaming out loud.

"Please..."

Both conscious people in the room freeze, and Lana is startled to realize that she is the one who spoke. Voice cracking with desperation, she turns and faces the broad-shouldered man. "Please, D-Damon. You have to h-help me."

For a moment, his face is unreadable, and Lana feels her heart sink as she thinks of the consequences if Gant refuses. The next painful few seconds feel like an eternity as she wonders if she'll lose the last family she has left.

"Okay."

Neck snapping upwards so fast so fast it cracks, shocked teal meets calm green and the teal eyes cloud over with tears of relief. Lana lowers her head onto Ema's hair and unending, incoherent murmurs of gratitude fall from her lips in tandem with the droplets falling from her eyes. Carefully setting her sister down, Lana begins helping the man rearrange the scene, never once regretting that she has signed away what was left of her innocence.

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The first time Lana feels guilt gnawing at her throat about the forgeries she made is within a few hours of the deed.

Ema had awoken a couple hours ago and she had been taken into custody for her side of the story. Of course, many know her as the little sister of one of the top detectives in the precinct, so they had been extra careful to make sure she wasn't pressured too hard (but not without a few well-placed glares from the older sibling). After the questioning, Ema walks out of the room looking exhausted and collapses into a trembling mess into her sister's arms.

Lana feels her gut wrench with every soft sniffle and quiet whimper, and she repeatedly tells herself that what she did was right, that it was for the goodness of her baby sister. But when Ema pulls away and identical teal eyes meet, one filled with tears and the other kept carefully blank, Lana can't help but wonder if Ema can see right through her lie.

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The first time Lana hears her sister scream I hate you is when she is locked behind bars and she meets her old friend's successor.

When she is called from her cell, she knows immediately who the culprit is. She chides the young guard sharply.

"Guard... I thought I told you I didn't want visitors."

Her frigid voice caused the young man to gulp, but he stammers out that she has no choice. Lana can't help herself from snapping out a cruel remark in response. Sighing quietly and bracing herself, she slowly makes her way out to the single chair in front of a clear glass pane.

She doesn't need to look up to know that Ema is standing there.

"H-hi, Lana."

Hearing that timid little voice, Lana's cold facade nearly shatters. It took all of her willpower to keep her voice steady. Clenching her jaw, she grits out, "Funny. I seem to remember specifically telling you _not_ to come here. Perhaps my memory is failing?" Lana stays turned around, not daring to look at her sister's wide, pleading eyes. One look into them and she'd crumble. Just like she always had.

Lana finally turns, but she was still unable to meet Ema's imploring gaze. Instead, she ignores her sister and instead confronts the spiky haired man next to her. As she allows him to questions her, she feels Ema's stare burning into her cheek. Finally growing tired of his endless questions, Lana bluntly tells him the hopelessness of the situation.

"B-but Lana!"

And finally Ema speaks. Lana wonders sardonically what took her so long.

"You... You were always this way weren't you?"

Lana feels herself recoil in shock. Ema looks down and clutches at the brown bag she always carried, always so full of science experiments. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Lana remembers she had given her that for her eighth birthday. Bitterly, Ema continued, "You never think of anyone but yourself."

For the first time in the entire discussion, Lana allows herself to meet her little sister's eyes. "I know you didn't do it, Lana," Ema's voice rises with every word, "I know! So... So how can you say you did?!" Lana is struck dumb, but it doesn't matter because Ema doesn't allow her to speak. "If I lose you... I'll be all alone!"

Lana is stunned, and she momentarily flashes back to that day—that terrifying, horrible nightmare—when a similar thought had run in her own mind in her panic stricken head.

_...she wonders if she'll lose the last family she has left..._

"I..." Lana is jerked back to the present as Ema tearfully spits out, "I hate you, Lana!"

Lana feels something in her heart shatter. Can't bearing to stand another second looking into Ema's eyes, she turns around to hide the glittering in her own.

"Mr. Wright."

She vaguely registers his surprised yelp.

"I believe our discussion here is ended. The rest... I leave to you."

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The first time Lana feels free and experiences freedom in a very, very long time is when Ema forgives her.

The trial ends, and it finally sinks in in Lana's mind and heart that Ema is innocent. Innocent, without the need for false evidence nor years of interlocked lies woven together to fabricate a twisted story of blackmail and betrayal. Yet, even armed with this newfound knowledge, Lana can't quite make that heavy feeling disappear from her chest. She still remembered the hopelessness and fear shining in her baby sister's eyes—and not just today in the trial; rather, for the past two _years_—and being able to do nothing about it.

"I'm such a fool..." Lana whispers in the aftermath, again finding herself unable to meet Ema's eyes, "It took me all this time to realize it." Finally raising her gaze, she pleads with her eyes and voice and entire _soul_, "Ema... I'm so sorry."

Lana is surprised when Ema interjects, fists clenched in front of her, "But sis! You don't have to apologize!" Ema beams at her, "I'm happy now!"

The older women stares at her, uncomprehending. She blinks, eyebrows furrowing slightly in confusion, "You're... happy?"

Ema nods brightly, "Of course!" Lana watches in wonder as Ema's entire face lights up, eyes crinkling and head tilting to the side _just like it always did_, "You know, Sis, I always knew that one day you'd come back." Ema flips down her rose glasses, smiling cheekily as she continues, "And now you have!"

Lana feels the last of that heavy feeling leave her body, and suddenly she feels as light as air. Rushing forward, she grabs her baby sister and swings her up into a hug, burying her face into Ema's soft, brown hair.

A warm feeling fills Lana's chest, and Lana realizes that this—_this familiar form in her now strong and confident arms, this soft brush of her sister's long, silky hair against her damp cheek, this feel of her cherished Ema wrapped up in her fully mature and loving embrace_—is what her freedom has been all along.

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><p><strong>Review!<strong>


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